Ordinary people have done so much to help a family devastated by a fire in Oneida that supporters are asking people to hold off donating more clothing.

As for politicians making long-term progress on issues dogging First Nation communities, that remains a more distant prospect.

“It’s housing, but it’s bigger than just housing,” Grand Chief Gord Peters of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians said Monday. “It’s water and wastewater. We’ve been stranded on this for some time.”

A decade of inaction with the Conservatives has been followed by promises by the Liberals, he said.

A house fire Dec. 14 on Townline Road in Oneida, southwest of London, killed Kurt Antone and four young children.

None of the children has been identified. Post-mortems were to take place Monday.

Last week, Randall Phillips, chief of the Oneida Nation of the Thames, called the fire a “perfect example” of the housing crisis in First Nations, and said the federal government turned down his community’s application for money to upgrade 50 homes.

He said the wood home that was destroyed was “basically kindling.”

On Monday, Phillips spoke about housing and other issues hurting his community, but declined to comment on the fire, saying the family and his community need privacy as they grieve.

The fire has triggered an outpouring of sympathy and support from members of the public.

In the days after the blaze, members of Oneida and other area First Nations as well as London organizations held fundraisers and donation drives to help the surviving members of Antone’s family — the children’s mom and four children.

Over the weekend, a representative of the family took to Facebook to thank people for their generosity.

“We the Doxtator/Antone family are overwhelmed with all the help and support from our community and several other communities including Six Nations and London,” Kuwanunha Elijah wrote.

“We kindly ask that all clothing donations stop being collected at this time.”

Clothing already donated will be sorted and available to others in the community.

Food, beds and money to rebuild the home are still needed, Elijah said.

The death rate by fire is 10.4 times higher on First Nations communities than for the rest of Canada, with the rate of fires 2.4 times greater, according to federal studies.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs placed a two per cent cap on annual funding increases for First Nation communities, programs and services in the 1990s, Peters said.

First Nation leaders have long complained their communities are underfunded in nearly every area, from housing and education to infrastructure. “Everything is compounded. You have poor housing issues going on, poor water issues, your children are impacted,” Peters said.

“That stuff’s been there for decades and (the communities) are really, really, really poor.”

Oneida First Nation is in the riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, represented in Parliament by Conservative Bev Shipley.

“We can get into the funding, whether there is enough funding or not enough funding. Right now, we need to support the family,” Shipley said Monday.

He said he would help the community push for better housing, but noted First Nations have worked together to build a strong voice in Ottawa.

“If I’m asked to help, I would be more than happy to help,” Shipley said.

Eleven people were killed in four fires in four days last week in southern Ontario.

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